General purpose computer systems typically execute an operating system. An operating system is a set of system software programs in a computer system that regulate the ways application software programs use the computer hardware and the ways that users control the computer. For hardware functions such as input/output and memory space allocation, operating system programs act as an intermediary between application programs and the computer hardware, although application programs can be executed directly by the hardware.
A personal computer system (e.g., a micro-computer system) can be configured to execute a number of different operating systems. For example, a personal computer system can execute a variety of different MICROSOFT® products, including WINDOWS XP®, WINDOWS 7®, WINDOWS SERVER® and WINDOWS HOME SERVER®. Personal computer systems can also be configured to execute Linux, MAC OS X®, etc. Each operating system can provide specific features to a user of the computer system.